Don't trust your RV insurance

[lawjohnson]

Good info... I will have to have a conversation with Progressive!

[tomkaesyb]

Originally Posted by egwilly

I once hit a small wood table laying in the lane I was in, didn't see it until too late! Late at night on a dark road.

Bang! Did about $1500 damage to front end of our tow vehicle.

Insurance company considered it a "collision". $1000 deductible.

Decided to pay for the repairs myself.....collision on the account racks up points against you during next renewal. Higher premiums result. Pro-rated for 5 years in California. Not sure about other states. No forgiveness policies exist here.

Insurance sucks.

My son had his hand on his vehicle, he was sitting talking to friends on the back fender of his truck) a friend of his thought it would be funny to pretend to get really close to his truck, well new driver and stick shift he slipped and the car lurched forward trapping my sons hand between the two vehicles! It did not damage the truck ( his car it did) but my son ended up in ER with a broken hand. The insurance company ( in KS) said it’s a no fault state, which long story short means each insurance company pays for their own customers costs in most situations. In the end they considered my son at fault , considering it an at fault accident, and then dropped my umbrella coverage they sold me the year prior to protect me from the extra liability of teenage drivers!
The real kicker? The medical was covered by military insurance since we drove him to a military hospital instead of going to the nearest ER!
So my question to them would be what if it wasn’t his hand? It could have been much worse! Would it still be HIS fault? That’s ludicrous, bill whosever at fault period!
Yes, insurance SUCKS!

[Blazeman]

You said Farmers insurance, they are one of the worst for paying claims. Get Amica...

[zzotte]

Originally Posted by Gary RVRoamer

The tow bar is considered "personal property" and not part of the RV, so no different than any other piece of gear you brought along and got damaged in an accident. However, in this case it caused the accident rather than being a victim of it. If your lawn chair breaks while on a camping trip, the RV insurance doesn't replace it, right? But if the lawn chair was in the RV and got crushed during an RV accident, then it could be covered under the personal property clause of your policy.


If you were towing a trailer and the trailer hit something or somebody else and caused damage, your RV liability coverage would handle it. Damage to others, not to yourself or your own property. Any damage to the trailer is not covered at all unless the trailer had its own collision coverage. Your towed car is treated pretty much the same, except that it has its own liability policy for any damage it causes. That's the primary insurance for whatever damage the car causes. However, you can't sue yourself for damages, meaning you cannot be held liable for damages you do to yourself. Ergo, your liability insurance doesn't kick in to cover any damage it did to your own motorhome.


The bottom line is that both vehicles get fixed under their own respective policy, whether it is collision or comprehensive (they both have deductibles). You are on the hook for both deductibles.

I totally agree with you Gary, two deductibles

Zzotte

[Roadyacht1]

If you are not satisfied with your insurance Co. Hire a Public Adjuster. They usually charge 10% of what ever they get you. You pay nothing if they don’t benefit you. It is very difficult for the Ins Co to jerk them around. They are good at what they do. Look them up google or google maps. They made a huge difference on our claim. No, your Ins Co. Will never tell you about them or recommend them. Our Ins Co ( State Farm) and its agent, was less than a good neighbor. At least it doesn’t cost to call and inquire.

[shootist]

I was a body shop owner, nationwide state farm has a horrible reputation. In southern ca. They were on par with aaa.

[bkennedy]

I have AAA insurance on all of my vehicles, my home and a umbrella policy. I have been with them for about 30 years. I had the same thing happen; tow bar broke, towed vehicle ran into the back of my truck. Did $13,000 damage to truck, none to towed vehicle as it is a off-road vehicle with a steel plate bumper. The towed vehicle basically drove through the tailgate and into the bed, destroying the bed. Lucky for me when the tow bar decided to fail it was one of the few times I was towing with my Silverado and not the RV. I think it would have drove through the back of the RV as I was braking hard when the tow bar failed (box truck pulled out directly in front of me). The mounting tab on one arm of the tow bar broke off, the other arm bent up in a U and BAAM. Aluminum old tow bar that was given to me when I purchased the RV that I was planning on replacing at the end of the desert season.

AAA decided the collision was a mechanical failure, which meant to them it was a "No Fault Collision". I had to pay my deductible (once) and they paid for all the repairs. Agent told me to go to a RV shop that sells tow bars and have a worker there call him. I ended up with a Demco 10,000 lb rated tow bar since the worker told AAA that was the closest thing they had to my tow bar. AAA agent asked for the total out the door price and sent me a check. Best $250.00 deductible I ever spent.

In short, you have the wrong insurance company.

[DryCreek]

Originally Posted by Theunz

I get many solicitations from State Farm. I never even open them, and before I throw them in the trash I spit on them!

Well, while still not as radical as using their promotional material for toilet paper, that should be effective enough, I guess.

[bm9201]

Last month my 4 x 8 utility trailer came loose from my car and struck my rear bumper when I stopped. When I filed a claim with State Farm they informed me it would be processed as a collision. I guess I better ask them to review that decision.

[Dutchstar53]

We just moved our multiple cars to another insurance agency. They also offered RV insurance. The coverage was greater than what we had for $200 less. After getting the documents and reviewing them I had several coverage questions. They were treating the motorhome like a car. No replacement cost (even though agent said they had it). Just current value. I called the company I had just cancelled and they have true replacement cost, as in todays value. I was able to get our cancelled policy reinstated and cancelled the other company. You do get what you pay for. Our current RV insurance company is National General thru Good Sam Company. They do understand RV’s. They also have Full Timer insurance. A side note we had one claim for $10,000. Our fault. We had no issues with how they handled the claim. Understood we were traveling and wanted to wait until we were finished with our trip and home to have it fixed. Repair facility was able to convince them that the more expensive repair was the proper repair for our rig. I recommend getting a quote from them and asking about how they would have covered your incident just for comparison.

[dvredc5]

This is one of those topics that could go on forever but since I’ve been an insurance agent for State Farm for 29-years I thought I would try to help clarify a few things for everyone. To begin with everyone here has to understand insurance laws and regulations vary greatly from state to state. As a result policy language and how coverage applies varies as well. Nobody should make any assumptions about any given policy person X is talking about is just like their own policy.

All I can speak for with 100% certainty are how things work here in IL which is a fault state meaning companies involved in handling any claim are required to assign fault to both parties involved or others as well if there are more than 2 parties involved. It might be 0%, 100% or anything in between. Take a simple accident where someone turns left in front of you causing you to hit them. Seems simple and they are 100% at fault right? If the other person turned left literally just before you got to the intersection you would likely hit the passenger front corner or maybe the middle of their vehicle. If they turn left in front of you and you aren’t paying attention, don’t brake to avoid them and hit them in the passenger rear they will very likely put some of the fault on you as well. 75% them, 25% you. Thankfully here in IL whoever is 51% or more at fault is considered the majority at fault and any loss of an accident free discount or added accident surcharge ends up on their policy, not yours. That is of course unless you have a “forgiven accident benefit” available which many companies provide like State Farm does. Then any incident you are at fault in is treated just like it never happened and you continue with your prior accident free discount. Even if they pay out your policy maximum benefits to the other party.

In IL liability laws won’t allow someone to hold themselves liable. Back one of your vehicles into another vehicle you own and the collision coverage from both policies is activated to pay for repairs to each vehicle and unfortunately each policy’s collision deductible would apply to each vehicle. Much different than if you back into your neighbors vehicle parked in the street. Then your liability and specifically property damage liability coverage pays to repair your neighbors vehicle because you are liable and 100% at fault for their damages. Your collision coverage pays to repair your vehicle and you are subject to your collision deductible. Again, we are a “fault” type of state. It works much differently in “no-fault” states. Maybe someone who is or was an agent in a no fault state can comment on that.

So, regardless of how one of your vehicles strikes another of your vehicles while driving or in this case being hooked to a tow bar, it’s considered a collision claim because again you cannot be “liable” for damages to your own vehicles. Both vehicle collision deductibles would apply. Mechanical failures of any parts due to age, poor design, overloading are never covered under a vehicle insurance policy. Any other physical damage caused after the part failed would be covered under the collision coverage. Example would be if the towed vehicle broke loose from the towing vehicle, went off the road and hit a guard rail. That would still be a collision claim and the collision deductible would apply.

When you have any object that is flying through the air hit your vehicle such as a rock hitting the windshield, hail falling from the sky, a tree limb breaking and falling on the vehicle is part of the vehicle Comprehensive coverage. In IL Comprehensive coverage is literally worded as “physical damage other than collision”. Theft, fire, vandalism, flooding are other types of damages considered comprehensive claims. They make an exception for having a “collision” with a deer also being a Comprehensive claim rather than a collision claim and it’s written in the policy to make it clear.

However, if you hit something not flying through the air but rather lying in the road such as a truck tire, large pothole, couch or something that fell out of someone else’s vehicle will be considered a “roadbed collision”. You hit something in the road so that should make sense. Comprehensive coverage generally has a lower deductible because it’s a much less costly part of our policies due to fewer and less costly claims than companies have with collision coverage. Collision often has a $250 or $500 deductible because it tends to be one of the most costly coverages in a vehicle policy and a higher deductible is usually justified. But, always check as we see polices all the time where someone has a $1,000 collision deductible and it’s literally only $6 more semi-annually to have a lower $500 collision deductible.

Having a comprehensive claim doesn’t remove an accident free or other discount and also doesn’t cause any “accident” surcharges like a collision claim might do. With State Farm and here in IL several factors determine if an “accident or collision” type of claim will change policy discounts and premiums. The longevity of the policy, past at fault claims (State Farm doesn’t remove accident free discounts or add an accident surcharge if the incident is not considered the policyholders fault - less than 51%). If the policy previously earned a high enough accident free discount only that accident free discount would be removed in an at fault accident. If they had a forgiven accident benefit then they would continue with their former accident free discount. In some cases an accident surcharge of 5%, 10% or higher (if they had multiple at fault accidents in the last 3-years). Special note here, many other companies increase policy premiums regardless of who is at fault or if it’s a comprehensive or collision claim. They view it as that claim cost them money to process so they raise their rates. Not justified in my opinion but many companies follow this practice.

As I said in the beginning, we could go on forever on this issue which should make everyone understand the importance of knowing your policy and coverage before something happens so there aren’t any surprises. That’s where a good, knowledgeable and truly customer focused agent and his/her team come into play. If they haven’t taken the time to explain things to you give them a call or send an email and ask them. They should have done so when you purchased the policy but if they didn’t make them do it now. Don’t settle for less than you deserve and if they don’t deliver look for a different agent who will do their part for you.

Hope this is helpful and remember, policies and coverage vary tremendously from state to state!

[Geo19Irv]

Never mind all the fine print written in legal language no company wants to lose a paying customer. If I have a problem I ask to speak to the "Customer retention department" and tell them you will drop them and go to the competition, that department has the power to make adjustments and they will want to keep you paying and not lose you.

[willbush]

I have USAA and this happened to us (Have experience as past Ins agent). They said it was under collision, I said no, it isn't because it was an equipment failure and there was NO driver in the car;sent pictures and they changed it to comprehensive; also last year, while going through Syracuse over an overpass I had to straddle a muffler that fell of an auto and couldn't avoid it, went under motorhome, hit the rock guard on back of motorhome flew up and hit car;again they called it a collision, I again sent pictures and argued that it was not collision at an object came out from under the motorhome and FLEW UP and hit car causing damage;again no driver hit anything an an object flew up from under motorhome and hit car;again they changed it to comprehensive;don't accept anything without arguing especially when you can provide a common sense reason why you disagree. Good luck. Also makes a difference who you talk to at the insurance company.

[BSHGTO]

Willbush said "Also makes a difference who you talk to at the Insurance company". This is key to success. If they can`t understand what your talking about or have no idea how things work in general how do you think they a can make decision that is correct. They will make a decision based on how much it will cost the company or if they can raise your rates to recoup costs.
Calling your states Insurance commissioner about their denial usually get their attention. Wife was a claims agent for a well know company for years hated when they called or wrote to them about a complaint cause they had to explain in detail why they did what they did and more often than not it change for the better for the customer after " reconsidering ". We had many heated discussions at the dinner table before she retired, company vs consumer. Of course I always won....LOL